Creative Sunday Practice #13

This week’s Creative Sunday Practice starts with something you’ve probably squeezed without ever considering it as a photography subject: toothpaste.

Before dismissing it, slow down.

Toothpaste is line, pressure, texture, repetition, and gesture, all hiding inside a very ordinary tube. The moment it leaves the cap, it becomes expressive, almost sculptural. What looks mundane at first glance can quickly turn into a surprisingly rich visual material once you stop treating it like a product and start seeing it as form.

For this Sunday’s practice, grab your smartphone and give yourself ten quiet minutes to explore toothpaste as a subject.

Before taking photos, spend the first minute simply observing. Notice how the paste behaves when squeezed slowly versus quickly. Watch how it curves, collapses, stacks, or spreads. Let those observations guide your first compositions.

If you need a starting point, here are a few creative directions to explore:

🪥 Follow the line as toothpaste leaves the tube and creates natural curves

🪥 Explore patterns created by squeezing, stacking, or smearing

🪥 Photograph toothpaste as pure texture rather than a recognizable object

🪥 Use a single-color background to exaggerate form and contrast

🪥 Let the paste interact with unexpected materials such as metal, fabric, or glass

When I practiced this at home with my iPhone, the images began to suggest themselves once I stopped rushing toward “a photo.” As soon as I let go of the outcome and focused on looking, the process became lighter and more intuitive.

That’s the core of this practice.
Start by observing. Make one small decision. Then make another. The image often appears before you consciously decide what you’re making.

Creative Sunday Practice is about building that reflex.

I’ll be back next Sunday with another simple object to help keep your creative eye active.